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Monday, September 6, 2010

What do you think of this store policy?

The store shall remain nameless. But lets just say it is a popular children's clothing store, and you pay for quality clothing.

I bought each of the kids one item of clothing about a week and half ago. They are both awkward sized right now....super skinny (ah, to have THAT problem), and getting things that are long enough and fit in the waist is a challenge. I found something for each of them that would work, and they would be able to use for awhile.

Unfortunately, it wasn't on sale, but I bought it anyway (save the lecture....I know...I know....).

Well, the store had a sale where everything was 30% off. So I took the items back to see if they would price adjust it, or I would return and re-purchase. The store must have this happen alot...because they have a whole policy AGAINST it.

They only price adjust for 7 days (I was at 11). Ok, no biggie. I will return and repurchase. NOPE. They make you wait 24 hours to repurchase. The only way around it is if they have the clothes on the floor, in your size....THEN you can purchase THOSE, but not the ones you just returned.

Of course, the 2 items were on the floor, but not in the sizes I needed. And the sale ended today, so returning them would have just been a return. And even if the sale went on until tomorrow (which it doesn't), if someone bought my sizes, then I would be out of luck.

What do you think of this???? I get that people could just keep returning and repurchasing, but I think it is a bit extreme. It isn't a store I frequently buy from, but this policy sort of turns me off a bit. Do you think it is reasonable? Am I being unreasonable?

9 comments:

This is a no-win situation in my opinion. I find that retails stores are not consumer friendly. I think that most policies are not consumer friendly, but more a CYA for the retail stores. That is why when I shop, I check out the ads before hand. If the cost is not reasonable, I tell my daughter that we will wait until it is on sale. Otherwise, my debt budget would be horrific!

I think it's a fairly reasonable policy. What I think is ridiculous in terms of sales is... Well, let me start at the beginning. Monday morning Mom goes to Gap to shop, sees the tee shirts I love on sale for $10 each. Gap had recently sent out 40% off coupons for every Wednesday of August. Wednesday rolls around, and the shirts had been marked up to their regular price for the 40% off sale. (Wouldn't have been a big deal if it was 40% off an order but it was just one item.) The sales lady admitted that they halted the tees sale on Wednesdays for that purpose. UGH!

@Rhitter - if I had known the sale was coming, I would have just waited.

@Anonymous - I have no problem with the price adjustment part....I was outside of the window. I was more annoyed with the 24 hour wait policy to repurchase returned items.

@Red - I had a discussion with the girl regarding the rewards program they offer. Basically, for every $50 you spend, you get $25 off every $50 you spend later, during certain times. But there are no sales at that time, and you can only redeem the "coupon" for a 10 day window. So while you are saving 50%, it is off of pricey stuff.

Let me guess Childrens Place. I had this same issue. I was able to get a price adjustment, but they made me bring the clothing back to the store. Not just using the reciept. Makes me wonder if I will buy anything from them again.http://www.facebook.com/pages/Alexandria-KY/Frugal-Ways-to-Save-Deals/192774327992?v=wall&story_fbid=441856067992

I am a pretty regular Gymbo shopper and the 24 hour hold has been the policy for quite a while.

If you know how to shop Gymbo, you can get great deals. I rarely buy my kids clothes at Kohl's because I can get better deals at Gymboree. While they don't generally run sales during gymbuck redemption, they still have lines that are marked 20-40% off (or more) on the sales floor during redemption. So, you can use your Gymbucks to buy marked down merchandise (which is what I do ...).

If you ever have the urge to buy Gymboree again, don't pay full price! Gymbo has a sale every holiday weekend (Labor Day, 4th of July, President's Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving). Usually, the sale is 20% off already reduced merchandise. Black Friday is usually 30% off the entire store. And, there are ALWAYS 20% off coupons floating around ... you can stack those with the sales. If you sign up on their email list, they send you coupons via snail mail and email ... plus, they "invite you" to all of their Circle of Friends sales (30% off anything for a 3-4 day period a couple of times a year).

@Anonymous "2" - I very rarely pay full price for anything. But this time I did, and of course I am annoyed with myself. More annoyed that the store isn't more "friendly" with the policy....but whatever. I am a Circle of Friends member, and have done quite well in the past. I blew it on this one.

Wow, it's been so long since I've shopped regular retail! I've been so spoiled. I'm not surprised at the policy. I've talked to people who have worked in returns in the retail/service industry, and apparently there are people who make a business out of using the system, so these rules are set up for people who return stuff full-time. Kinda stinks they don't make an exception for someone who's obviously not trying to gank the system...